Metroid: Origins of a Hero
by Slade1987
Summary: Just a little scene I wrote with a fan-created origin story for Samus Aran using the GameCube game Defender as she embarks on a new mission that dredges up some unpleasant memories from her past. No real intention to continue, but wanted to share.


It was supposed to be a training exercise. That was all. Nothing fancy, just powersuits, live ammunition, and holographic targets.

That had been the idea anyways.

When the sirens had started, she had assumed that it was part of a drill. But then she'd seen how the sergeants and the Captain had reacted to it.

It was no drill, and there was no warning.

The Mantids were here.

She stood amongst her fellow recruits, out of a company of one hundred thirty-seven, there were now forty-seven and the Mantids showed no sign of stopping their assault.

She heard a scream behind her and turned to see Avis being lifted up, a Mantid claw straight through the sternum of his armor. She keyed a missile and fired it point blank, blasting the giant insect to pieces before firing an energy bolt into the next enemy.

Overhead a flight of Defenders flew past escorting a trio of Guardians.

She wished they'd come back around and drop some of those bombs on the Mantids around their position.

As she watched, a Mantid leapt up and tore into the hull of one of the Guardians, sending the bomber plummeting towards the red dunes of Mars' surface. One of the Defenders pirouetted in midair, a manuever only possible thanks to its G-diffuser, and opened fire, its Vulcan cannon tearing into the Mantid attacker, avenging the fallen Guardian.

She didn't get to watch anymore of the aerial combat though as the ground shook beneath her feet, drawing her attention back to the hell she was in.

"Artillery!" someone shouted.

"That isn't bug! That's ou—!"

Whatever else was said was lost as immense heat washed over her body and the ground rose up, throwing her into the air and casting her aside to land in the red dirt, her green armor smeared with the rust colored sand. She shook her head, trying to get it to stop ringing as she picked herself up.

She came up into the leering face of one of her squadmates, Ohare. Her features twisted into a hideous grin, half the skin on her face burned clean off.

She screamed, and kept screaming until the Captain smashed his armored fist into the side of her head.

"Pull it together Marine, we've got a job to do!"

Nodding shakily, she readied her arm cannon as a renewed assault was launched. There were only seven of them now against the endless hordes of the Mantids.

"Golem 2-1 this is Razor 7-3, I'm inbound on your beacon, status?"

She looked around her and realized she and the Captain were the only two left standing.

A cold weight settled in her stomach.

"Razor 7-3, Golem 2-1, we need pickup for two." the Captain called.

"Copy that G-2-1, be advised I only have one free mag-hook."

The Captain put a hand on her shoulder and she shook her head. She wasn't going to abandon her.

"Sorry Marine, but you're getting out of here."

The command overrides were designed to lock out the user-interface and allow external control of the powered armor. They worked and she found herself sitting there still as a statue as he activated her mag-hook.

"Razor 7-3, we're ready down here."

"Inbound, Fox Four, Fox Two."

Vulcan cannon rounds tore into the oncoming Mantids as they swarmed forwards, followed by a missile strike. She watched in mounting panic as a lone Defender soared in low, its wings already burdened by two other mag-hook pickups. She was the last one.

She tried to move, to somehow make sure it was the Captain and not herself that got hooked but the command overrides kept her in place.

The mag-hook caught and she was jerked upwards and attached to the hook on the Defender's centerline.

She watched as the Captain continued to fire into the swarming insects, watched as they overran him and tore him limb from limb.

It should have been her.

Samus jerked upright in her bunk, covered in sweat and gasping for breath, panting heavily as she looked around at the familiar bulkheads of her ship.

It had been a dream.

A nightmare.

The Mantids were gone, the war was over...it had been seven years.

She slid out of her bunk and crossed to her terminal, pulling up the mission summary one more time.

Lieutenant-Commander Rorin Attican.

He'd been the pilot of that Defender.

The one that had saved her life.

It had been a routine training day for him as well. His first solo flight.

Then the Mantids had attacked.

In the first twenty minutes he'd been an ace.

In the next forty he'd tripled his kill score.

By the time he'd saved Samus' life, he'd killed thirty-seven Mantids.

She had been the twenty-seventh—and last—person whose life he'd personally saved that day.

And those were his accomplishments from the first day of combat.

He was the TDF's most decorated pilot...and he'd gone missing one week ago while on routine patrol.

That was why Samus was here. There was no other reason a lowly bounty-hunter would be out here. Unlike Attican, she'd left TDF service the moment she had the chance. Sick of other people controlling her life but still wanting action, she'd become a bounty-hunter, a mercenary, a gun for hire...code or no code, there was no denying that she was at heart in this for herself and no one else.

This was different however.

Rorin Attican had saved her life, a debt she'd never repaid.

She always repaid her debts.

If she could settle this, a life saved for a life saved...her debt would be settled.

She closed the terminal.

Wherever Rorin Attican had disappeared to, she would find him.

She had to, even if it meant reliving the nightmares.


End file.
